Edward Merrick — The River Tyne Drainage Area. 301 



decreases on nearing Cleadon ; the greatest difference being half-way 

 between the two places, where instead of the land level being at 

 1,500 feet, it is 1,000 feet, thus indicating that a slight bending, 

 a sagging of 500 feet, has taken place. (Fig. 6.) The tendency of 

 this bending is to space the contour-lines nearer together in the west 

 and further apart in the east, till near Cleadon, when they come 



Fig. 5.- — Diagram of the strike of the strata in the same areas as in 

 Figs. 2 and 3. E, D, Later deposits. C, B, A, Carboniferous. 



closer together. The tributaries from this watershed are naturally 

 influenced by this bending. The change in position of the contours 

 influences the direction in which the streams flow. 



The Rivers South Tyne, West and East Allen, and the Devil's 

 "Water all run nearly at right angles from the watershed, but owing 

 to the bending the River Derwent runs along a slanting course into 



W.SW. 



E.NE. 



Fig. 6. — Slight sagging of a peneplain causing different spacing of contours 

 [compare with the Wear drainage area]. 



the Tyne Valley. The lessening of the slope by the wider spacing 

 of the contours gives the streams greater liberty for forming a mean- 

 dering course. Had this bending increased beyond a certain amount, 

 a ridge or dome would have been formed near the coast, and the 

 ■contours would have wound round it instead of around Cross Eell ; 



